Chapter 5 Go with the Flow

Now that the worst of the cleanup was done I was less concerned about throwing money into a block only to find out there were problems which would result in having to discard it.  It was time to think in terms of making the engine live and thrive in its high output environment.

The first item I turned my attention to was the lifter valley.  Racing Studebakers all fight one common characteristic; the engine oil as it is pumped through the engine has a tendency to accumulate in the lifter valley and on top of the heads.  So much so that many an engine has been damaged by all of the oil being held on top and none available to the oil pump.  The loss of oil pressure can result in catastrophic damage to bearings, crankshaft, rods and cams.

  With that in mind I ran a little experiment on my block.  I set the block level left to right and angled front to back as it would be when installed in the engine bay.  Then I slowly poured transmission fluid into the lifter valley at the very front and center.  I continued pouring until the fluid filled all the little pockets between the lifter bosses.  It took 10 ounces to fill those pockets before the first drop of fluid reached the opening where it would drain back down to the pan.

This means that fully 1/2 quart of the oil in the engine never gets returned to be recirculated by the oil pump.  Further, when the engine is shut down, that oil is subjected to the heat of the engine and literally cooks into a black thick ooze, sometimes even to hard chunks.  Not the kind of stuff you want coming loose in your engine.

  The answer was simple.  Fill all those pockets in and smooth the oil's way back to the bottom.  A special metal filled high temperature epoxy was used for just that.

  With the next pour of transmission fluid, the liquid flowed quickly and completely to the return port at the rear of the valley.  Of course, that is just one of many steps to getting a handle on the oil control needed.  More on down the line.

  With a block in the condition this one was in, every surface becomes rusted and pitted.  Work in the lifter valley was a constant reminder that the lifter bores were also rusted and pitted just like the cylinder walls.  The lifters must cycle smoothly and be contained in a closely fitted bore.  Clearly, a change had to happen.  The popular engines have a lot of tooling in machine shops all over the US.  Studebakers don't enjoy that widespread availability.  If this were a Chevy engine I could just send it out to a shop with the proper tooling to ensure the lifter bores were centered perfectly over the cam lobes and at a perfect angle to keep the lifter in contact with the cam.  This wasn't possible with this block.

  Jeff called me one day and told me about a company making a tooling set to rebush lifter bores.  I contacted them and ordered the tooling.  It consists of a piloted reamer which centers on the existing lifter bore and cuts the bore larger to accept a bronze bushing.  The second tool installs the bushing in the reamed hole.  The final tool pilots on the inside diameter of the new bushing and cuts it to the final size of the lifter.

Installation proved simple enough. I did add a bushing to center the top of the reamers rather than relying only on the pilot to keep thing straight.  Cleanup prep and a coat of Glyptal added a finishing touch.